Agriculture in England. 



19 



" On the use of saltpetre as a manure. 

 On the management and cheapest method of keeping farm-horses. 

 On spade-husbandry. 



On the best method of improving neat-cattle in the district. 

 On shoeing horses. 

 On stall-feeding. 



On the best method of keeping farming accounts. 



Whether or not it is beneficial to consume by stock any part of the 



straw the produce of the farm. 

 On chaff-cutting." 



With respect, however, to our immediate subject, the Report of 

 the Harleston Farmers, as it stands in the ' Mark- Lane Express/ 

 Feb. 11th, runs as follows : — Your Committee, in common with 

 every member of the club, was astonished to find that, amongst a 

 body of farmers, all resichng within four or five miles of the place 

 of meeting, all using a similar breed of cart-horses, and cultivating 

 a similar description of land, such an astonishing difference in the 

 expense of maintaining their cart-horses should exist, amounting, 

 in authenticated statements, to upwards of 50 per cent., whether 

 estimated at per head for each cart-horse, or per acre for the 

 arable land." That is to say, not only, with an equal number of 

 acres to plough, the horses of one farmer cost twice as much as 

 those of another ; in which case the difference might arise partly 

 from the different number of working cattle maintained; upon 

 which a second question would arise, — which farmer had too 

 many, or which had too few ? — but also the very same number of 

 horses stood in to one farmer at double the expense which they 

 did to the other. What greater proof,"' the Harleston Committee 

 very properly ask, could be reqmred of the necessity for dis- 

 cussion? — and if no other subject had ever been brought before 

 your club, we are of opinion, that by debating this question alone 

 it would have rendered incalculable benefit to the neighbour- 

 hood ; for what member, who now learned for the first time that 

 his neighbour was cultivating his land at much less cost than 

 himself in one of the hea^■iest items in a farmer's expenses, but 

 would go home and improve on his farm management ? ' 



It appears then, even from the superficial survey contained in 

 these few pages, that the practice of farmers varies greatly, in dif- 

 ferent parts of this country, on points where there is no question 

 which practice is best. But it appears also that there are innu- 

 merable points of farming on which no one ought to give a posi- 

 tive answer, because no certain knowledge exists. How then is 

 such certainty to be obtained on a matter which involves so large 

 a national profit and loss ? Surely, as in other sciences, by care- 

 ful observation and well-considered experiment. But in many 

 sciences this process, however difficult, is at least w-itliin tiie 



